Note 819 — Chapter XXVIII
Reading edition
Obras de Romero de Cepeda, Sevilla, 1582, 4to. The poem alluded to is entitled “El Infelice Robo de Elena Reyna de Esparta por Paris, Infante Troyano, del qual sucedió la Sangrienta Destruycion de Troya.” It begins ab ovo Ledæ, and, going through about two thousand lines, ends with the death of six hundred thousand Trojans. The shorter poems in the volume are sometimes agreeable.
The poem of Manuel de Gallegos, entitled “Gigantomachia,” and published at Lisbon, 1628, 4to, is also, like that of Cepeda, on a classical subject, being devoted to the war of the Giants against the Gods. Its author was a Portuguese, who lived many years at Madrid in intimacy with Lope de Vega, and wrote occasionally for the Spanish stage, but returned at last to his native country, and died there in 1665. His “Gigantomachia,” in about three hundred and forty octave stanzas, divided into five short books, is written, for the period when it appeared, in a pure style, but is a very dull poem.